--- title: "How to archive a web page" description: "Pages get redesigned, paywalled, and deleted. Five ways to keep a permanent copy of a web page, from the Wayback Machine to a PDF, and which one fits what you need." source: https://savepad.app/blog/archive-web-page --- [Blog](https://savepad.app/blog) · 2 January 2024 # How to save a web page before it disappears Pages get redesigned, paywalled, and deleted. Five ways to keep a permanent copy of a web page, from the Wayback Machine to a PDF, and which one fits what you need. *A full-page snapshot of a saved landing page in Savepad* **TLDR** - A bookmark is a pointer, not a copy. When the page changes or dies, your bookmark points at nothing. - **For a public record:** the Wayback Machine or archive.today. Free, public, sometimes slow. - **For your own copy:** a full-page screenshot, a PDF, or a single HTML file. Or a bookmark manager that keeps a snapshot for you. ## Why pages disappear Redesigns, rebrands, paywalls, companies shutting down, blog posts quietly unpublished, and pricing pages changed every quarter. Studies of link rot keep finding the same thing: a big chunk of links from a few years ago are dead or show something different. If you saved a page because of what it said or how it looked, you need a copy. ## 1. The Wayback Machine Go to `web.archive.org/save`, paste the URL, and the Internet Archive takes a copy anyone can see. Free, and it gives you a permanent link to that version. Downsides: it’s public, it struggles with logged-in pages and heavy scripts, and it’s slow when busy. ## 2. archive.today `archive.ph` does the same thing with a screenshot of the page as well. Handy for pages the Wayback Machine chokes on. ## 3. Print to PDF **⌘P** or **Ctrl+P**, then **Save as PDF**. Every browser does it. You get the page as a document, with text you can search. Layouts sometimes break, and cookie banners love to show up in it. ## 4. A full-page screenshot The most faithful picture of how a page looked. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge can all do it without an extension, and the [full-page screenshot](https://savepad.app/blog/full-page-screenshot) guide has each one. The catch: it’s a picture, so the text isn’t searchable unless something reads it. ## 5. SingleFile The SingleFile browser extension saves a page as one HTML file, with images and styles inside it. Open it in ten years and it still works. The most complete copy you can get, and also the clunkiest to keep organised. ## Or let your bookmark manager do it Doing any of the above for every page is tedious, so most people don’t. Savepad does it on save: every link gets a full-page screenshot at desktop and phone widths and a clean reading copy, on every plan. A weekly check flags links that died or moved, and opening one falls back to your snapshot. On the top plan, watched pages get a fresh snapshot every month they change, which is great for [competitor research](https://savepad.app/use-cases/competitor-research) on pricing pages. *A mock pricing page snapshot at desktop width* 0960 · desktop · snapshot *A mock pricing page snapshot at phone width* 0157 · phone · snapshot *A mock article in a clean reading view* 0254 · reading copy One page kept three ways in Savepad: the desktop snapshot, the phone snapshot, and the reading copy. ## Which one? | Tool | Public | Keeps how it looked | Searchable text | Effort | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Wayback Machine | Yes | Mostly | Not really | Low | | archive.today | Yes | Yes, with screenshot | Not really | Low | | PDF | No | Roughly | Yes | Medium | | Full-page screenshot | No | Yes | Only if read | Medium | | SingleFile | No | Yes | Yes | High | | Savepad | No, unless you share it | Yes | Yes | None | For saving emails the same way, see [how to save an email as a PDF](https://savepad.app/blog/save-email-as-pdf). ## FAQ ### How do I archive a web page for free? Paste the URL into the Wayback Machine's Save Page Now at web.archive.org/save, or into archive.today. Both keep a public copy for free. ### What's the best format to save a web page in? For how it looked, a full-page screenshot or a PDF. For the text, a reading copy or Markdown. For everything including scripts, a single HTML file from the SingleFile extension. ### Do bookmarks keep a copy of the page? Browser bookmarks don't. Some bookmark managers do: Savepad keeps a full-page snapshot and reading copy of every link, Raindrop does on Pro, and Pinboard on its archive plan. [Join the waitlist](https://savepad.app/#waitlist) ## Read these next - [Tone of voice examples: Brand tone of voice examples, voice vs tone, how to write a voice guide people use, and the AI tells that make every brand sound the same.](https://savepad.app/blog/tone-of-voice-examples) - [The best bookmark managers: The bookmark managers worth using in 2026, from free browser bookmarks to Raindrop, Pinboard, and Savepad, with what each is best at, prices, and which ones use AI.](https://savepad.app/blog/best-bookmark-managers) - [How to find your saved posts on LinkedIn: Where LinkedIn hides your saved posts on desktop and in the app, why they vanish, and how to keep the good ones somewhere you can search and sort.](https://savepad.app/blog/linkedin-saved-posts)